After 40 years, the Tamaqua Area Historical Society is stepping away from sponsoring and organizing Tamaqua’s popular downtown festivals.

The move doesn’t mean the end for Summerfest or the Heritage Festival.

With blessings from the society, both will continue under the leadership of the Tamaqua Odd Fellows.

“We’re hoping to see them take it, and make it their own,” society President Dale Freudenberger said. “We are thankful and feel confident that they will do a good job.”

And already, the Odd Fellows are on the planning process.

Justin Bailey, a member of the Odd Fellows and its festival committee, said the group has started contacting vendors and will soon post registration forms online.

According to Freudenberger, the society’s board had hoped to hang on to the festivals, which draw thousands to the borough’s downtown. But after four decades as the festivals’ organizer and planner, he decided that it was time to retire.

“I’m getting older,” he admitted. “It’s getting more difficult to keep up with all my community involvement and I decided that I was going to start backing up on some of my involvement — but I’m not going anywhere. And the historical society will continue to grow with its other projects.”

From a seat inside the society’s 118 W. Broad St. museum, Freudenberger recalled the festivals’ beginnings.

A place to share

It was 1984, and the society — then 11 years old — had been acquiring quite a few artifacts, old photos and memorabilia.

But with no museum and no headquarters, there was no way to show off the historic gems.

“So we decided to create a way to share it with the public,” Freudenberger said.

The first-ever Tamaqua Heritage Festival was born.

“It was indoors at the historic Anthracite Bank building (133 W. Broad St.),” he said. “We had exhibits, photographs and historical artifacts. We had a few crafters — like a few tables. We sold food from the kitchen — and we had one antique automobile parked outside the building.”

The following year, society members spoke to officials from the Blue Mountain and Reading Railroad, which is now the Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad.

“They were in their early days of doing train excursions,” Freudenberger said.

In their conversations, the society relayed that it was planning a large, outdoor Heritage Festival and asked whether the railroad would consider an excursion to bring visitors.

The railroad got on board.

“They brought a train filled with customers and we offered the festival. It worked out well for both of us,” Freudenberger said.

Over the next few years, the railroad continued bringing trains to the festivals, and the festivals — held first on Hegarty Avenue — began to get bigger and bigger.

Conversations continued with the railroad.

“They were looking for reasons to come to our region with trains,” Freudenberger recalled. “They said to us, ‘If you had more events, we could come up’.”

And that’s when Summerfest was created.

“That was the whole reason,” Freudenberger said.

The society has sponsored and organized both festivals ever since. For most of their years — until a change of venue in 2024 — the festivals were held on portions of Broad and Railroad streets.

“They’ve become two of Schuylkill County’s largest events,” he said. “They’re also the largest events in Tamaqua.”

He’s heard that many families plan reunions around the festivals, and that many nonprofit groups are able to raise much-needed funds at the events.

Freudenberger said the society’s board had hoped to see the festivals continue.

“But being that I’m the organizer, and do all the planning, I said, ‘I need to get out of this,’” he said.

Discussions about what organizations could oversee the festivals followed.

“We came up with a couple of ideas and we decided that we would entertain a conversation with the Odd Fellows because they are a good organization. They have very long roots here in Tamaqua. They are well established and well run,” he said.

“They maintain some of Tamaqua’s most historic assets — the Odd Fellows Cemetery, which was started in 1865. And they’re all volunteers as well.”

Involved in the community

Bailey said the Odd Fellows are no stranger to the festivals.

“We have been at the festivals doing things over the last 15 to 20 years. We’ve always taken part in it,” he said.

And with a history dating back to 1843, he said, “We’ve been around a long time.”

While much of members’ volunteer efforts center around the historic cemetery at the end of East Broad Street, Bailey said the Odd Fellows and its Rebekah Lodge has donated thousands to people and organizations in the community.

They’re now focusing on festival plans. Bailey said they intend to keep the dates the same: Father’s Day for Summerfest and the second Sunday in October for the Heritage Festival.

“We want to build it up again. We’d like to have more entertainment; we want people to have a reason to come down to Tamaqua for these events,” Bailey said.

For the inaugural year, the festivals will be held on South Railroad Street.

“If things go good, I’d love to see it back on Broad Street again,” Bailey added.

The Odd Fellows will soon post cover letters and registration sheets on Facebook.

“That way, they’re available online,” Bailey noted.

They also sent out more than 250 letters to vendors.

“We are also going to try to get sponsors. They used to years ago, and that would help pay for more entertainment, but that too has stopped. We want to get that moving again,” Bailey said.

Anyone who would like to support the festivals or help the Odd Fellows committee should email harmony86ioof@yahoo.com.

Even though the society won’t be the planning festivals, Freudenberger said, it will open its museum, annex, Hegarty Blacksmith Shop and Wagon Works Museum for them. They also have a few new projects in the works, and expect to announce more information in the spring.

Freudenberger thanked the community, vendors, borough, property owners, organizations, churches, schools, and fire companies for their support, while wishing the best to the Odd Fellows.

“I look forward and encourage them to grow the festivals, expand the festivals, bring in new entertainment — whatever they choose to do,” Freudenberger said.